Chapter 13: To mend our mistakes-

~Weiss’ POV~

The last two weeks at Beacon Academy had been… fairly difficult for a certain white-haired young woman.

Weiss was certainly not expecting so many issues to explode out from a simple morning spent ‘scouting’ for any possible competitors for the approaching tournament here in Vale.

The incredible discovery that one of her teammates was a Faunus and had been part of the White Fang having given the young heiress no little concerns over the overall situation here at the school.

She could remember the particularly-heated discussion, the clashing of two stern minds over something that was sore for both girls and… then she remembered the immense revelation from Blake.

The Faunus wasn’t someone she had been much attached to and the Schnee wasn’t certainly going to deny such thing before reality.

Both had been at odds since they have met each other, starting from the very first day at the Academy by how the Belladonna’s patronizing voice had taken a strong jab at the heiress while Weiss was chiding Ruby’s clumsy behavior.

She should have expected, not truly, that the very intervention hadn’t been a casual-driven one, nor one out of pity directed the red-caped leader of the team, mostly because how in that very case the target of her careful lecture wasn’t the girl herself but the Schnee Family as a whole.

Anger had sparked from the sudden discovery and the soon-to-follow disappearance of the Cat Faunus brought even more irritation to the Atlesian girl’s mind over the matter as it made the whole subject more aggravating.

She didn’t hate Faunus, nor she supported her father’s cruel and cynical vision he had of the little group within humanity but Weiss would never deny the intense hatred she harbored for the White Fang as a whole.

It wouldn’t be a lie to say that, despite having lived in a state of luxury and riches, her childhood had suffered immensely from the radicalization of the terrorist organization as Jacques Schnee wasn’t certainly someone that knew about ‘letting off his frustration’ only on poor fools working under him.

Dinners would became literal battlefields with the man going as far as verbally lynching anyone that tried to bring him any more dissatisfaction for those days, his loud and stern tone bringing out quite the horrible individual to have nearby.

Winter managed to dodge the worst of those moments by the second she was accepted in Atlas Academy, her big sister having long assured that her stay in that ‘house’ wasn’t something pleasant as a home should give to any of its inhabitants.

Whitley was surprisingly smarter as he was quick to notice the higher-degree of positive attention and decided to merely become a shadow to Jacques instead of even considering trying to get a chance at life away from the gloomy prospect of a business-dominated life.

Then there was mother… and she was not here.

Memories of her early childhood did show a more-active Willow Schnee during those moments, the woman clashing more than eagerly against her husband for the sake of keeping some sanctity during dinners.

A strong personality that slowly dwindled down to a husk by the time Weiss was ten, the daughter of Nicholas Schnee preferring to drown her own imprisonment experience in wine rather than try to give better chances to her children.

And… there was grandfather.

Nicholas Schnee was possibly the last element of staunch resistance against Jacques’ cold demeanor, the founder of the SDC doing his best to try and keep the former Gelé from shattering any resemblance of the growing family but…

Then fate decided to bring another reason to hate the White Fang.

Grandfather was a memorable figure from her first few years, even Winter used to muse back at the ‘pretty years’ experienced while the kind old man was alive and giving them attention and care.

But despite the ever-cheerful behavior, it wasn’t difficult to spot some tired sighs leaving his lips once or twice in a while as he would give them some of his time to spend either playing around or having pleasant discussions.

It all changed one day when they were all enjoying a little walk to the park.

Mother had decided to stay back home to take care of Whitley, her brother still a toddler at the time, and Nicholas had been more than elated to take both her and Winter for a little walk around the natural site nearby the mansion.

It was all going well, she could remember the laughs, the sun bathing her with its light and-

Pain.

It had been so sudden, so unexpected.

A quick and blunt hit to the back of her head to maim her while the real target of the assassination attempt was killed away from her sight, the immediate attack bringing her to faint before she could understand what was going on.

Weiss would then wake up a full day later, some bandages applied over her head as her mother continued to sob by the chair nearby her bed back home.

Those tears would be the last time Willow Schnee would try to stand up against Jacques, her husband having been quite uncaring of the passing of his predecessor.

Nicholas Schnee was killed by a ‘rogue’ group of the White Fang that had managed to infiltrate the group of guards keeping watch over them at the park, their surprising assault managing to quickly overwhelm the old founder of the SDC and, despite capturing all of them, the ‘bringer of the modern era’ wouldn’t survive to see what happened next.

Atlas’ outrage at the ‘rebellious cell’ would be the final nail to the coffin of the older leadership of the Fang, the first leader having to step down in shame at the horrible crime perpetrated by his own creation.

With the peaceful but mostly isolated man stepping down, Sienna Khan emerged to render the organization ‘capable of properly bring change to Remnant’.

Violence increased, but so did Jacques’ bouts of anger back home and… with Winter having left to join the military and with Whitley well-aware of not doing anything ‘bad’ before their father when he was furious, Weiss found herself alone before the irritation of her authoritative parent.

A grade a little less than perfect? A two-weeks detention away from any of her hobbies.

A ‘bad tone’ used before her father? She would get a slap for being ‘cheeky’ and ‘rebellious.

Things would only escalate from there, but then Weiss was given a way out in the form of enlisting to Beacon Academy.

Time passed since the first day, some bumps along the way forced her to concede and surrender some of the harsher bits of her own cold exterior for the sake of ‘giving some efforts for the team’.

Ruby proved to not be as problematic as she had initially thought her to be with the two years she had skipped by joining the Academy this early and her older sister was a teaser at best rather than an outright troublemaker within the school’s premises.

It was Blake that turned out to be a… problem.

Not a ‘problem’ in the sense of a pending issue that would cause her to make mistake or endanger the team… but someone that barely connected with the other three girls.

Even Yang had to admit early on that she barely knew the Belladonna to say if she expected or not such a development, thus bringing endless questions to the already overworking mind of hers.

Why did Blake join Beacon Academy?

Why would Ozpin accept her to the school?

Did the headmaster know about her past affiliations, and if so why did he still let her enlist to Beacon?

The first week after the battles at the docks was one where Weiss’ confused anger would cause her to make some terrible bad choices.

First, the Schnee ended missing some of the study sessions she herself had planned to have with Ruby, the Rose asking multiple time if she needed some time to think or even rest by the way the heiress would act out outside.

It was kind of nice considering how latched the younger girl had been to her since the initiation test (if not before if she had to consider the clumsy meeting), but she had then scoffed at her concerns and kept going.

Some tests did suffer with her lack of focus, her mind failing to concentrate and calm down as the frustration continued to pile up within her core.

Finally, her sleeping schedule was ruined by frequently waking up during the night and rending her just a little bit of rest compared to the usual.

She had been tired, unnerved and terribly difficult to get to talk to, especially when that situation at the bar occurred.

It was the culmination of any other interactions with people, the waiter, albeit in the right with his duties for the activity, had been treated awfully out of ill-judgment than with impartial analysis.

This very encounter proved also to be decisive as Yang decided to finally confront her over her attitude, her blunt questions quite difficult to deflect considering whom she was dealing with, but it didn’t turn into a nice discussion to have.

Angry words were exchanged, some shallow insults thrown here and there… before the Xiao Long decided to bring out something she had not considered until now.

“What if Blake isn’t avoiding us? What she got caught by them?”

What if, she mused at that deafening throwback, what if Yang had been correct with this statement?

In a rare instance of lucidity, Weiss finally decided to pause in her furious state to walk back on her step, right to the origin of this issue.

Back to the questions, those little confusing bits that made the whole situation weird to consider.

Why did Blake attack the Fang if… she was still part of them? Why did she fought with them against the criminals?

From there theories stemmed sporadically and mercilessly within her mind, the heiress found her attention once more consumed by this pressing issue, this time her anger turning in worry about the subject.

It was just a minor pulse at first, then the concern started to grow the wilder her thoughts over the matter would get.

What if Blake had left the Fang because they had turned bad?

What if she tried to save people but she was almost killed by this?

What if Ozpin offered her shelter by letting her join Beacon?

Another week passed, her grades continuing a little decline, this time softened by the much-accepted help offered by the rest of the team with her own homework.

It was odd to see how the tables had turned, from a laborious girl that would drive the entire group to pick up the pace for school’s duties to someone unwilling to even turn a page from a thin book.

Odd indeed.

But not as odd as what ended up happening by the turn of the second week after the battle, the message sent by Ms. Goodwitch to their Scrolls notifying them of an important development about their missing teammate.

Blake was back… and her return happened after the destruction of a suspected White Fang’s stronghold.

It didn’t take much for the heiress to connect dots, her pace a little quicker than usual as she followed both Yang and Ruby to the hospital ward of the school and… there she was.

The Cat Faunus wasn’t donning her signature bow, her animal feature in full display… with the various cuts and tears on her clothes. Those hadn’t been there back in the aftermath of the last time they had seen her

The Belladonna didn’t look to have endured too much, but there were signs of injuries on her exposed arms, enough to dignify one of the worst scenarios possible with her capture.

Torture.

Tsune, the woman that was responsible for the ward, quickly notified the rest of the team of the situation, about how Weiss had been correct in the end.

Blake had been captured while giving pursue to one of the younger members of the organization, two weeks spent in that warehouse, to be ‘brought back to reason’ with the ‘proper means’.

It was ‘luck’ that had granted her the means to escape, to destroy the place before they could have tried to attempt anything worse than stealing shipments of Dust.

The explosion had echoed across the capital, even those here at Beacon had heard it.

Ruby and Yang were the more talkative, asking the right questions to the safely-returned member of the team, the Faunus slightly embarrassed by the attention but certainly not unhappy for the concern.

Yet, despite the positive words coming from both girls, the Belladonna’s attention was taken by Weiss herself. Or rather by the reaction the Schnee was displaying in that very moment.

Utter silence, the Atlesian girl’s face was set in a simple blank mask that kept inside whatever emotion was behind her external shell.

She had to also look quite tired because of the visible bags below her eye.

Half an hour passed, Ruby finally noticed that her partner was not taking part in the conversation, her silver eyes frowning in confusion at the lack of intervention from Weiss.

But instead of calling out this strange behavior or even coax her to join in the discussion, the Rose reached for her sister, tugging at the blonde’s gauntlet.

Yang turned with a surprised look at her younger sibling, only for Ruby to sigh. “Maybe we should… leave them alone.” The girl stated with a soft but determined voice.

“But what if-” Lilac eyes widened when the team leader smiled widely.

“I think they will do anything bad if they chat after… what happened in the last two weeks,” Ruby said calmly. “Plus, I think we should prepare something to help Blake with the current school’s homework.”

The brawler huffed but nodded. “More homework- Fine, but you have to help with the math problems.”

Just as the blonde stretched and prepared to go, Weiss noticed Ruby tensing up at this.

“T-There are math problems for today?”

The Schnee would have snort at that. It was just so adorable to see the little Rose panicking over something as simple as mere homework.

The two siblings left the ward moments later, leaving Blake alone with the cause behind her leaving, behind her crescendo of problems and…

This certainly isn’t the brightest idea Ruby could have had about this delicate case.

She could have just avoided the talk, waited for better times and… yet the knot in her chest ignored her little need to leave that unpleasant and unbearable circumstance.

The heiress gulped nervously but… she was ready to give her best.

Her lips parted as the words formed on her tongue.

“I’m sorry-” “I’m sorry-”

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~Blake’s POV~

Of all things that could have happened in that very moment, this development wasn’t something she had truly expected.

Blake’s eyes widened in noticeable surprise as her apology was met with a genuine one coming from the Schnee, the fellow girl looking shocked herself by their mutual response, somewhat embarrassed by the curious impasse.

Weiss was… a proud individual, someone that wouldn’t just consider apologizing with someone even if her fault was evident to the rest of the people… and yet she was apologizing...

To her.

Blake was the one that bolted, that left the group for the sake of avoiding the confrontation, to ‘help a child out of the White Fang’ and… she was the one in needs of apologies.

Was this a joke? Maybe it was an attempt to-

But to what end?

It was just maddening. The situation was strange, if not awkward considering the strangely frail nature of the Atlesian’s girl current stance.

She looked incredibly tense, quite nervous and-

That wasn’t making any sense to the Belladonna, nor was how the already-odd reply was followed.

“I-I didn’t mean to-” The Schnee resumed briefly, sighing tiredly and nodding. “P-Please talk.”

...She was stuttering. Weiss Schnee was stuttering.

Her confusion increased and she blinked twice before addressing the unexpected predicament.

“I’m sorry for… leaving so suddenly after the battle at the-”

“I-It’s fine,” The heiress interjected quickly, an uneasy smile appearing on her face. “I-It’s not your fault if… if all of this happened.”

…

Blake’s mind was forced to reboot before this insane development, her attention now fully fixed upon the behavior Weiss was displaying in that very moment and the reasons urging her to say things like this.

It just didn’t make sense as the last time she had seen the heiress before returning to Beacon, the girl had been completely angry, terribly irritated by everything and everyone.

But now? Now it was like she was looking at a shadow of what once was a bratty rich girl. Gone was the arrogance, the stern looks and the pompous posture of the young woman.

Now the heiress looked incredibly little, as if she had reverted to a younger state of herself.

“Weiss,” The Belladonna started slowly, still unsure how to deal with this situation. “Do you… think that my capture is your fault?”

There was a brief moment of silence, the girl blinked surprised and then… blinked again.

“I don’t think that, no,” Weiss assured with a nod, her smile deflating a little.

Blake felt some relief at that, happy that this wasn’t what she had thought it to be-

“I… know that it is my fault.”

Nevermind.

Her amber eyes widened. “Weiss, I decided to give chase after the battle. You didn’t have anything to do with-”

“If I hadn’t been so vehement back during our last discussion,” The Schnee interrupted with a stronger tone. “This wouldn’t have happened. The battle, the chase and… the capture.”

“You- You can’t be serious,” The Belladonna commented back, her surprise flooding her voice. “We both went too far-”

“But I could have tried to-”

“Listen,” The Cat Faunus intervened quickly. “I understand that you are upset over it, but I’m fine. You don’t have more fault than I have.”

“U-Upset? You think this- this is just me being ‘upset’, Blake?” Finally, something close to anger seemed to burst within her words. “You said you were lucky- you know that things could have surely gone worse if ‘luck’ hadn’t been there for you.”

Things would have gone definitively much worse than… what happened with Sid’s intervention.

It had been so close for Adam to go and do something she didn’t want, to be forced to… to go that far and-

No, she didn’t need to think that now of all times. Not now that she was back at Beacon Academy.

Her mind tried to calm down at that interesting thought, the dreadful content more than enough to dissuade her from persisting along this line.

Sid had rescued her, they were both fine and she shouldn’t be lingering too much over that tiring night.

Sadly, Weiss didn’t know about what had truly happened with that circumstance.

Just like for Ruby and Yang, the heiress knew only that it’s been only the Faunus to accomplish her own escape with nothing else but… ‘luck’.

“Weiss-”

“What if you had been hurt beyond mere torture?” The heiress interrupted again, seemingly lost in that cycle of eventualities. “What if you had been killed?”

“It wouldn’t have been your fault-”

“I would have been the one to survive from this mistake, as much as you make it appear equal to yours,” She continued while ignoring the Cat Faunus. “I would have had guilt, while you wouldn’t have had another chance at-”

“Stop.”

Blue eyes widened, the Schnee snapping out of her gloomy reverie as she noticed that she was already trembling, shivering as little tears were forming by the edges of her eyes.

“I-I didn’t mean to bring-”

“You didn’t, I know.”

“B-But I-”

“Weiss,” Blake finally said with a tired tone, her eyes softening as she sighed. “Can you please… come closer?”

The request sounded odd even as it left her lips, yet the idea was the only thing that worked to avoid the predicament to escalate even more.

The heiress blinked in minor surprise, but she did comply as she took two steps closer, just enough for the Belladonna’s arms to reach out and bring the girl close.

Weiss was shocked by the sudden action, her head comfortably settled on the Faunus’ shoulder as the girl squeezed her close.

Intimacy wasn’t certainly something the dark-haired girl was known for, but it wasn’t something that was completely awkward considering the extreme confidence behind the act.

“You are a brat,” Blake whispered furiously. “A spoiled brat that can’t just understand when it’s your fault and when it’s not.”

In that very moments, glimpses of how the Schnee would back before this very moment flashed all at once in her mind.

The numerous times she would try to intervene in any study session, to arrogantly had her own ‘experience and knowledge’ to the matter while denying the help of others.

Barking a lot before her peers, trying to appear strong, brave… acceptable.

But that mask did fade just moments before Blake had left the docks, before she had decided to avoid the confrontation.

It had been a little detail, a minuscule speck of time that she couldn’t remember at first but… now she could.

Weiss’ face moments before giving a furious scowl, before giving a ‘proper’ reaction to the situation.

There was shock, there was self-disappointment and… there was fear.

Fear of having failed someone.

“I-I- What?”

“You try to appear so mighty and perfect,” The Belladonna continued. “But I know that’s not true.”

“I’m not per-”

“Even trying, even denying your own attempts; You know that your father isn’t here, you don’t have to-”

“I still have a duty as a-”

“Moron.”

Blurting the word sounded so… apt for the predicament but Blake herself was aware that this wasn’t something born from her own perception of things.

Instead of tackling the highly-emotional predicament with her miser experience over the topic, she had slowly but unconsciously slipped in the kind of personality she had been subjected to for the last two weeks.

“I-I’m not a moron!” The heiress rebuked scandalized.

“If you truly think you have a duty even though nobody is caring for your title,” The Cat Faunus stated with utter certainty. “Then yes, you are a moron.”

Weiss huffed, her trembling starting to reduce. “O-Of course I’m not-”

“Guilty of anything.”

Blake felt in a roll, a strange emotion considering that she had little experience of winning a conversation of this kind.

And the strange amusement rising from her chest as the Schnee was subjected to a ‘Sid treatment’? Was this how the young man felt when he controlled a discussion?

What an addictive sensation.

“Y-You are trying to make me angry-”

“Or maybe I’m telling the truth,” The Cat Faunus continued mercilessly. “Let me ask you something, what if you were wrong?”

“I’m not- what are you even talking about?!” Weiss exclaimed in shock, yet she didn’t even try to end the ongoing embrace. “Wrong? It’s logical for me to be-”

“A silly girl that overthink over simple matters,” She said while squeezing her closer. “I’m here, I’m mostly fine and you are trying to hold back the fact you feel dumbly guilty about what had happened to me.”

“I-It’s not true,” The heiress said slowly, her mouth settling on her shoulder while her arms started to wrap below Blake’s armpits and around her waist. “Y-You are the moron- and a dolt!”

“I thought that was only… Ruby.”

Weiss snorted at that. “Ruby wouldn’t do something as foolish as you did and-” The Schnee paused, tensing a little before sighing in defeat. “In retrospect, I could see her ‘plan’ something far worse than that-”

“Then I’m not a dolt.”

“You are still a dolt for- for bolting like a… moron,” The Atlesian girl shot back with a final huff.

For some reason this exchange just sounded so… good.

It was a lighter version of that little heated discussion they had before the Belladonna had left Beacon to find more about the White Fang, but instead of mean-spirited words it was all about childish comebacks and responses.

Something that wasn’t meant to hurt but to be perceived as a playful tug of war.

“And you are still hugging this moron,” Blake snapped back with a mirthful tone, gaining another snort from the Schnee.

“Just because you are… warm and soft,” The white-haired girl muttered quietly, trying her best to cover the fact she had been crying until now.

But the Belladonna had noticed by the time her shoulder registered something wet falling continuously right where the heiress’ head was settled.

“I guess I am.”

“T-This doesn’t mean anything else,” Weiss stuttered a little, embarrassed by the teasing edge on that comment. “You are just-”

“Someone ‘warm and soft’.”

“Y-Yes but-”

The Cat Faunus snorted, interrupting the little exchange for a brief moment.

“You should probably get something for your tears,” She admitted with a calm sigh. “You wouldn’t want to be seen by Ruby and Yang like this.”

Surprisingly enough, the heiress merely sighed back.

“And you should do something for your purring,” The girl threw back with a small smile forming on her lips while she moved out of the hug, her right sleeve over her eyes to give remove some of the tears on her face. “Wouldn’t want for Xiao Long to tease you to death with Cat puns.”

That very comment brought the Belladonna out of her ‘Sid moment’ and back to her introverted self as her jaws dropped in shock at the comeback, her cheeks sporting a bright blush at that very detail.

She was purring but… when did she started to do that?!

Weiss giggled at the shocked expression. “Y-You might have some backbone, Belladonna,” She started with a somewhat happier tone. “But you are still a dolt.”

Before Blake could reply to that comment, the heiress decided to pick some handkerchief by her sleeves and deal with the tears remaining, walking away from the infirmary with a smug smirk on her face.

Alone in the infirmary, the Cat Faunus was left to finally consider what had just happened until now, her amber eyes widening more and more as the sudden escalation became clearer to her current state of mind.

Her blush grew even more, her confusion intensifying as she thought how her mind had just decided to ‘switch’ with how Sid would usually deal with her.

It was an odd reaction as she wasn’t much elated by how the young man would use logic and reason to beat her in mind-games or simple conversations, but for some reason she found the experience of being the one in control in a situation to be…

Awfully delightful.

It was like she was given freedom over how a situation should develop, if it should be a tame conclusion or a complicated one, positive or negative.

Of course Sid would never know of this. If the human ever so come close to discover that she had made use of his own means of persuasion, she would never hear the end of his gloating.

It was hard enough to endure his smugness when he would outmaneuver her in some conversation, Blake would surely be done for if he got this event as teasing material.

Hopefully, he will never know about this. Just like he will never know that I did stole a milk can before leaving the flat.

Just as a smile finally broke through her confused mask, her happiness deflated instantly as she caught sight of someone approaching her bed with a bright smile and… a dreadful amount of needles in her hands and… tail.

How is she juggling so many of those with just her tail!?

“Ms. Belladonna~!” Tsune declared giddily as she rushed towards her with the pointy ends of the horrible medical instruments of pain. “It’s time for your medications~!!”

Blake didn’t hesitate with her next action as she jumped off her bed and, without looking back, bolted away from the threatening woman now giving chase to her.

And while the Cat Faunus dealt with quite the predicament in the form of pure sadism incarnate, a certain white-haired girl couldn’t help but feel the need to smile.

Ruby would be curious about why Weiss would be this cheerful that day, especially after spending some time talking with Blake, while Yang would tease about ‘the Ice Queen was finally melting’.

Yet, despite the light-heart undertone of such comment, the heiress couldn’t help but blush at the thought of melting.

She had been so close to Blake, her warm breath and her incredibly soft skin driving her to a state of calm she had experienced just a few times in her childhood.

It was refreshing and… somewhat quite strange to think back about.

As strange as the swift pace her heartbeat was going at those comments coming from the Xiao Long, the undertone missing as only a certain innuendo persisted.

But that couldn’t be, couldn’t it?

Then why was her heart beating so loudly?